6 of LA's Worst Serial Killers - Most Dangerous Men in City's History

Los Angeles is one of the biggest cities in the United States. It has one of the most diverse populations and it has a mixture of all that is good and bad about this country, from the positives of multiculturalism to the negatives of gang violence. But what about serial killers?

Based on the overall high crime rate in California and the killers that have been active in this region in general (the Son of Sam, the Zodiac) you might expect LA to produce a disproportionately high percentage of serial killers, and to an extent, you’d be right. The names that everyone knows, from Bundy to Gacy, Dahmer, Gein and many others, were not active here, but there are many more who have been.

Known as The Night Stalker, Ramirez killed an estimated 14 victims in the SF and LA area throughout the 1980s. He was sentenced to death for his crimes, but he famously spent several decades on Death Row, before passing away in 2013 as he awaited his execution.

Ramirez is one of the most notorious killers in the history of LA because he had all the elements that the media wants to see. He was a satanist. He did unspeakable things. He listened to heavy metal music (at a time when the genre was being demonized) and after his arrest he received countless marriage proposal and declarations of love.

In many ways, he was everything that is wrong with our serial killer obsession.

Thought to be responsible for over 16 murders, Kraft was known as The Scorecard Killer because he kept a coded tally of all of his victims, which was discovered by police upon his arrest.

Kraft is awaiting execution on death row in San Quentin, where he has remained since 1989. He is 72 years old with a lifetime of rape, torture and mutilation behind him.

Grim Sleeper

One of the most notorious killers in the state’s history, the Grim Sleeper was the name given to Lonnie David Franklin because he seemed to take a long break between killings. However, if you listen to some theorists following the case, he didn’t take a break at all and police just weren’t able to connect any of the murders he committed in the interim period.

We may never know the full extent of Franklin’s crime spree, but he has been accused of 10 murders and in 2016 he was given the death penalty.

William Bonin

Bonin was a crazed, highly disturbed individual with the mindset of a spree killer and the erratic behavior to match. He is thought to have murdered at least 21 young men (and boys) over a period of just 1 year. He was eventually convicted for 14 of those murders before being executed in 1996, a full 16 years after his vicious spree ended.

Active between 1965 and 1977, Kearney is thought to have killed a many as 43 people. He focused on young men and killed throughout California, with his first murder taking place in Culver City.

Also known as the Freeway Killer, Patrick Kearney is still alive, reaching the ripe old age of 77. Thankfully though, most of those years have been spent behind bars at the California State Prison in Mule Creek.

Vaughn Greenwood

Greenwood was known as the “Skid Row Slasher” because his MO was to slash the victim’s neck from ear to ear. He performed this sickening ritual on at least 11 victims, but there was also a survivor who managed to escape his evil clutches.

Clearly Greenwood clearly had himself a good attorney, because he’s one of the few on this list who was not sent to death row. Instead, he was given a life sentence for his horrific crimes